Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[Redsgirl]

I laugh at the arguments over the correct way to use the language, when it's the evolution of language that keeps it alive, and relevant. I wonder if they'd had the internet back when Shakespear (or whoever really wrote his stuff) was creating, there'd have been threads debating his incorrect use of "seen better days" or "full circle" - they'd have called it "a sorry sight" but that was another phrase they'd have been slagging off.

I'm not suggesting blonde is as important to the language as Shakespear was, but the odd incongruous turn of phrase doesn't really hurt ;-)

Fair comment. Ish.

The world relies on the correct use of wordage, as practised by myself, of course, to save it from a lexiconic hell. 

More seriously.....I do actually find it extremely interesting how it evolves though.

Have you noticed - I only see it on poker fora, but it may well be have spread to the real world - how the meaning of words change? Nothing wrong with that, but us old-timers find it hard to adapt, don't we?

"Friend" has been completely changed, &, imo, devalued. By my definition, a "Facebook Friend" is nothing like a friend, it is an online acquaintance at best, in most cases. Tick that box, simple, job done, "we are now Friends". Sod that.

"Heroes" & "legends" ditto ditto. By correct definition, both are exceedingly rare, but a DTD Final Table can contain half a dozen of each.

All very discomfiting, or it is to me. 

Going back to "most unique", "Unique" is a lovely word, but now bastardised. In my line of work, we use it all day every day, to describe how many different players are on site each day - UPD (Uniques Per Day) - or how much they spend per day - MPU (Margin Per Unique). 

What were the uniques like yesterday? is the first question each morning. And the bigger the number, the better. So in Online Poker business-speak, the more uniques the better.

Yup, 20,000 uniques yesterday.

We are all, it seems, either unique, or a unique.

Tal got another post in before me, but now I have recovered from the swoon his latest effort induced, I'll get back to the question I was going to ask Tikay,
 What word would you use 'all day every day' if you made a stand and stopped using unique?
The point being if its used frequently, by eveyone then it must now be the best word for the job.

Individuals.

Individuals are not special as such. Unique is special.

Tal is an individual.

Robbie Williams is unique.

Drift duly got?

I'm with the cantankerous sod on this one.  Unique has been abused in this context, and individual is a better description of the visitors - rather than unique. 

Then he goes and ruins it by comparing the peerless Tal unfavourably to the egomaniac that is Robbie Williams

Anyway, amongst his vast works Shakespeare was responsible for the introduction of many words into the English language.  A list of some are here:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html


academe    accused   addiction   advertising   amazement
arouse    assassination   backing   bandit   bedroom
beached    besmirch   birthplace   blanket   bloodstained
barefaced   blushing   bet   bump   buzzer
caked   cater   champion   circumstantial   cold-blooded
compromise   courtship   countless   critic   dauntless
dawn   deafening   discontent   dishearten   drugged
dwindle   epileptic   equivocal   elbow   excitement
exposure   eyeball   fashionable   fixture   flawed
frugal   generous   gloomy   gossip   green-eyed
gust   hint   hobnob   hurried   impede
impartial   invulnerable   jaded   label   lackluster
laughable   lonely   lower   luggage   lustrous
madcap   majestic   marketable   metamorphize   mimic
monumental   moonbeam   mountaineer   negotiate   noiseless
obscene   obsequiously   ode   olympian   outbreak
panders   pedant   premeditated   puking   radiance
rant   remorseless   savagery   scuffle   secure
skim milk   submerge   summit   swagger   torture
tranquil   undress   unreal   varied   vaulting
worthless   zany   gnarled   grovel

I read some of these before, but I've always wondered how do you get away with just making a new word?
Obviously there are times when you cant just find the right way to describe something, but you dont think I'll just write blahdeblah and hope they get the jist, do you?
Well, not unless your Shakespeare apparently. He must of been one confident guy.
I wonder what the people reading (or worse, performing) his latest works thought, and them not even being able to google a definition or anything.

[RED-DOG]

Wow. Fantastic, I'm so jealous.

Both you & Tom ought to take note of this (below) too - it's wonderful.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22277084

Meant to respond to this earlier, the headline of "Attenborough to launch Tweet Of The Day on Radio 4" had me dreading another octogenarian grumpy codger moaning about the internet..... but the actual show could be good.

However even birds are changing their language in these modern times. I'd read about it but last week when picking up my girlfriend from Hamilton (near the Asda car park) I was amazed by a starling whose call was that of a car alarm. I now wonder if there was a bird (maybe a Pied WagTal) telling it off for its modern speech patterns.......

VERY good. Pied wagTAL.

Err, "like". (Internet speak again).

By the bye, that post you wrote about your avian visiters this afternoon was wonderful. I don't get to see (or perhaps recognize) such an array of species, but even now, if I see a heron, a buzzard, a kestrel, a cormorant, a red kite, it absolutely thrills me to bits & makes my day.

I have a resifdent blackbird in my garden, & he starts singing in the moirning, then spends all day ground hopping at low level, chasing away territorial invaders, fetching twigs & stuff. A perfect pleasure.

I've had one particular blackbird bossing my garden for about five years now. I know its the same one because he has a dropped wing.

Five seems quite old for a wild bird of this type.  I wonder how long they live?

[bobAlike]

Wow. Fantastic, I'm so jealous.

Both you & Tom ought to take note of this (below) too - it's wonderful.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22277084

Meant to respond to this earlier, the headline of "Attenborough to launch Tweet Of The Day on Radio 4" had me dreading another octogenarian grumpy codger moaning about the internet..... but the actual show could be good.

However even birds are changing their language in these modern times. I'd read about it but last week when picking up my girlfriend from Hamilton (near the Asda car park) I was amazed by a starling whose call was that of a car alarm. I now wonder if there was a bird (maybe a Pied WagTal) telling it off for its modern speech patterns.......

I can't decide if that is the cleverest title ever, or the daftest, most misleading.

Brilliant idea though. I never knew the UK was home to so many bird species. I doubt I could name a dozen without the aid of Mr Google.

Definitely the most misleading.

Re: Birds, the figure I can't get over is how many birds are killed by cats in the UK every year....

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/cats-birds.html#cr

 

[Redsgirl]

Here's a basic summary of what Song to Celia is about:

http://www.shmoop.com/to-celia/summary.html

Johnny Cash sang it:

Haven't heard this before, its a lovely verse but I prefer how it sounds in my head as I read it to Johnny Cash singing it.
The link above doesn't work but after a little googling I'm pleased it doesn't, as it appears to be someone explaining all the beauty out of it.

[Tal]

Proper character, Mr Jonson. Escaped the gallows due to friends in high places, was working as a poet in the King's court when he was suspected of being involved in the Gunpowder Plot, was in prison a number of times, had an interesting relationship with Shakespeare, married a woman he allegedly described as "a shrew but loyal"...

...oh and he wrote some good shizzle.

[tikay]

Proper character, Mr Jonson. Escaped the gallows due to friends in high places, was working as a poet in the King's court when he was suspected of being involved in the Gunpowder Plot, was in prison a number of times, had an interesting relationship with Shakespeare, married a woman he allegedly described as "a shrew but loyal"...

...oh and he wrote some good shizzle.

I believe that when he was released from Prison they gave him a felons brand on his thumb.

Tom will be amazed I knew that. Hidden depths, me, see?

[Tal]

Proper character, Mr Jonson. Escaped the gallows due to friends in high places, was working as a poet in the King's court when he was suspected of being involved in the Gunpowder Plot, was in prison a number of times, had an interesting relationship with Shakespeare, married a woman he allegedly described as "a shrew but loyal"...

...oh and he wrote some good shizzle.

I believe that when he was released from Prison they gave him a felons brand on his thumb.

Tom will be amazed I knew that. Hidden depths, me, see?

They should put you on telly with knowledge like that.

You've gasted my flabber once again.

[RED-DOG]

Proper character, Mr Jonson. Escaped the gallows due to friends in high places, was working as a poet in the King's court when he was suspected of being involved in the Gunpowder Plot, was in prison a number of times, had an interesting relationship with Shakespeare, married a woman he allegedly described as "a shrew but loyal"...

...oh and he wrote some good shizzle.

I believe that when he was released from Prison they gave him a felons brand on his thumb.

Tom will be amazed I knew that. Hidden depths, me, see?

Meh!

[tikay]

Go on, admit it, you are impressed with my deep knowledge of that poet bloke.

[outragous76]

I laugh at the arguments over the correct way to use the language, when it's the evolution of language that keeps it alive, and relevant. I wonder if they'd had the internet back when Shakespear (or whoever really wrote his stuff) was creating, there'd have been threads debating his incorrect use of "seen better days" or "full circle" - they'd have called it "a sorry sight" but that was another phrase they'd have been slagging off.

I'm not suggesting blonde is as important to the language as Shakespear was, but the odd incongruous turn of phrase doesn't really hurt ;-)

Fair comment. Ish.

The world relies on the correct use of wordage, as practised by myself, of course, to save it from a lexiconic hell. 

More seriously.....I do actually find it extremely interesting how it evolves though.

Have you noticed - I only see it on poker fora, but it may well be have spread to the real world - how the meaning of words change? Nothing wrong with that, but us old-timers find it hard to adapt, don't we?

"Friend" has been completely changed, &, imo, devalued. By my definition, a "Facebook Friend" is nothing like a friend, it is an online acquaintance at best, in most cases. Tick that box, simple, job done, "we are now Friends". Sod that.

"Heroes" & "legends" ditto ditto. By correct definition, both are exceedingly rare, but a DTD Final Table can contain half a dozen of each.

All very discomfiting, or it is to me. 

Going back to "most unique", "Unique" is a lovely word, but now bastardised. In my line of work, we use it all day every day, to describe how many different players are on site each day - UPD (Uniques Per Day) - or how much they spend per day - MPU (Margin Per Unique). 

What were the uniques like yesterday? is the first question each morning. And the bigger the number, the better. So in Online Poker business-speak, the more uniques the better.

Yup, 20,000 uniques yesterday.

We are all, it seems, either unique, or a unique.

Tal got another post in before me, but now I have recovered from the swoon his latest effort induced, I'll get back to the question I was going to ask Tikay,
 What word would you use 'all day every day' if you made a stand and stopped using unique?
The point being if its used frequently, by eveyone then it must now be the best word for the job.

Individuals.

Individuals are not special as such. Unique is special.

Tal is an individual.

Robbie Williams is unique.

Drift duly got?

I'm with the cantankerous sod on this one.  Unique has been abused in this context, and individual is a better description of the visitors - rather than unique. 

Then he goes and ruins it by comparing the peerless Tal unfavourably to the egomaniac that is Robbie Williams

Anyway, amongst his vast works Shakespeare was responsible for the introduction of many words into the English language.  A list of some are here:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html


academe    accused   addiction   advertising   amazement
arouse    assassination   backing   bandit   bedroom
beached    besmirch   birthplace   blanket   bloodstained
barefaced   blushing   bet   bump   buzzer
caked   cater   champion   circumstantial   cold-blooded
compromise   courtship   countless   critic   dauntless
dawn   deafening   discontent   dishearten   drugged
dwindle   epileptic   equivocal   elbow   excitement
exposure   eyeball   fashionable   fixture   flawed
frugal   generous   gloomy   gossip   green-eyed
gust   hint   hobnob   hurried   impede
impartial   invulnerable   jaded   label   lackluster
laughable   lonely   lower   luggage   lustrous
madcap   majestic   marketable   metamorphize   mimic
monumental   moonbeam   mountaineer   negotiate   noiseless
obscene   obsequiously   ode   olympian   outbreak
panders   pedant   premeditated   puking   radiance
rant   remorseless   savagery   scuffle   secure
skim milk   submerge   summit   swagger   torture
tranquil   undress   unreal   varied   vaulting
worthless   zany   gnarled   grovel

Whoa whoa whoa !

How did we nearly go 2 pages without someone calling BS on this?

Ok, carry on, my work here is done

[tikay]

2 pages of BS, Guy?


1,431 pages more like.

[RED-DOG]

2 pages of BS, Guy?


1,431 pages more like.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

[tikay]

2 pages of BS, Guy?


1,431 pages more like.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

Stuff that.

[RED-DOG]

2 pages of BS, Guy?


1,431 pages more like.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

Stuff that.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

[Tal]

2 pages of BS, Guy?


1,431 pages more like.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

Stuff that.

Brevity is the soul of wit